MAORI’S UNIQUE PLEA IN COURT

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 27, 27 October 1926, Page 6

MAORI’S UNIQUE PLEA IN COURT

NOT GUILTY, BUT WOULD ACCEPT SENTENCE Dominion Special. Auckland, October 26. “Would the Court like to hear why we have found accused not guilty?” asked the foreman of the jury (Mr. A. Moore) in the Supreme Court, after returning the verdict in the case of a young Maori charged with false pretences. “I don’t care to hear anything,” replied Mr. Justice Herdman. “I can’t understand, that is all. You may go to the back of the Court.” Accused was Tu Taara, and he was charged with obtaining, at Kaiwaka, the sum of £l7 from Thomas Vincent Nutsford, through his agent, Edward Coates, by falsely representing that he was authorised to obtain the loan on behalf of his mother. Accused, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded not guilty. Mr. Meredith, Crown Prosecutor, conducted the case for the Crown. Accused said he was a follower of Ratana, and, in pursuance ot his belief in principles of peace and good will toward all men, he would not contradict the evidence of the witnesses He was willing to accept the judgment of the Court in this case, in atonement for sins of his past of which the Court knew nothing. He added that the trouble was really a family one, and he hoped bis mother and father would forgive him for the trouble he bad caused. Summing up, His Honour briefly traversed the evidence, pud pointed

out that, while accused had made a long statement, he had not contradicted the evidence for the Crown. Before retiring, the foreman of the jury asked the Court how it was that anyone could give a loan without the production of the security, or without direct negotiation with the borrower, and His Honour pointed out that in the country, where the people were all known to each other it was not an unusual procedure. The jury was about half an hour in arriving at its verdict of not guilty.